Erato: Mozart - Lucio Silla K.135 / Equilbey, Insula Orchestra (2-CD)

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Product Details:

• UPC: 0190296377341
• Product Type: 2-CD Opera Set
• Label: Erato / Warner Classics
• Composer: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791)
• Catalog Number: 0190296377341
• Librettist: Giovanni de Gamerra
• Conductor: Laurence Equilbey
• Orchestra: Insula Orchestra
• Chorus: Le Jeune Choeur de Paris
• Release Year: 2022
• Genre: Classical / Opera
• Condition: Brand New / Factory Sealed

Product Features

• Format: 2 Audio CDs in digipak
• CD 1 - Act I: 63:41
• CD 2 - Acts II & III: 62:32
• Manufactured: Germany
• © 2022 ERDA / Parlophone Records Limited

Cast:

• Giunia - Olga Pudova (soprano)
• Cecilio - Franco Fagioli (countertenor)
• Lucio Silla - Alessandro Liberatore (tenor)
• Lucio Cinna - Chiara Skerath (soprano)
• Celia - Ilse Eerens (soprano)

Overview

Mozart was 16 when he composed Lucio Silla. That fact alone reframes everything you hear. This is not the work of a prodigy coasting on facility — it is a full three-act opera seria, 126 minutes of music, built around a Roman dictator whose cruelty gradually yields to mercy. The emotional range is already extraordinary: arias of fury and tenderness in the same act, orchestral writing of a sophistication that bewilders when you know the composer's age.

Laurence Equilbey and the Insula Orchestra — her period-instrument ensemble based in the Hauts-de-Seine region outside Paris — bring a characteristically lean, well-articulated sound to the score. The textures are transparent without being thin. Franco Fagioli's countertenor is the obvious draw, and he delivers: technically immaculate and dramatically present. Olga Pudova's Giunia carries the emotional center of the opera with clarity and focus. Alessandro Liberatore handles the title role's demanding tessitura without strain.

This is one of Mozart's least-recorded operas, and Equilbey's account makes a strong case for why it deserves more attention.

Interesting Facts

• Lucio Silla premiered in Milan on December 26, 1772 — St. Stephen's Day, a traditional opera opening night — to an audience of 30,000 over its initial run of 26 performances.
• Mozart composed the opera at speed; some arias were reportedly written within 24 hours of the premiere because the singers received their parts late.
• Franco Fagioli, born in Argentina in 1981, is one of the leading countertenors of his generation, renowned especially for Baroque and early Classical repertoire.
• Laurence Equilbey founded Insula Orchestra in 2012 specifically to perform Classical and early Romantic repertoire on period instruments; the ensemble is resident at the Seine Musicale concert hall near Paris.
• The libretto by Giovanni de Gamerra was revised by Pietro Metastasio — the dominant opera seria librettist of the 18th century — before Mozart set it to music.
• Erato, founded in Paris in 1953, is one of the oldest French classical labels and has been part of Warner Classics since 1992.

Track Listing

CD 1 - Act I: 63:41

CD 2 - Acts II & III: 62:32

(Full track-by-track listing included in the booklet)

Publishers

Erato / Warner Classics. © 2022 ERDA, under exclusive licence to Parlophone Records Limited. Manufactured and printed in Germany. A co-production with Insula Orchestra and Hauts-de-Seine le Département.

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